Remember these? I ordered them last Monday.

I figured by Friday afternoon about 3 pm that the fabric simply wasn’t going to come until Monday or Tuesday. Normally people don’t work much on Friday afternoons - and the delivery people usually arrive between 11:30-3:30pm - but not on Fridays. They try to work earlier.

Anyway, I went back to quilting.

Then I heard my husband tell me, “Someone’s at the door and it’s probably for you!” Sure enough. It was the courier - DPD. It was about 3 pm.

We used to have a younger man do the deliveries, but this was an older man and I was a bit afraid that the packages might be a bit heavy for him so I asked him to just take them off his truck and put them in our tent - which works as our garage.

Then I hauled them via wheelbarrow to the front steps.

Then I sort of walked them up the steps to the door.

Then I dragged them inside the house.

Lest you think I exaggerate. My husband heard me making groans as I brought the first one actually into the house and came downstairs and helped me with the next two packages.

The one I brought in weighed over 33 kg which is over 73 pounds! My sis might be that strong. I am not.

No wonder it took all I could to even get them into the wheelbarrow!

Once we got them inside the house, my husband opened them.

When he opened one of them, I kind of wondered at what one of them was as I didn’t recognize as my husband was opening the package was one with a white background - the only one with a pure white background was supposed to be the butterflies.

Oh no! (I thought!) They sent me the wrong sailboats one. The one I ordered was not nearly as childish as the one I got.

I was a bit upset by it. But shrug. I already had it. I am not going to wrap it back up and pay to ship it back. But I will complain (and I did) —I sent an email to them -- though they are off for the weekend — and asked for the one I originally ordered as well, and yes, I’ll pay for it, of course.

I’ll use the kiddie sailboats - already have, in fact, by the time I’m writing this. It will actually work really well on the back of the Winnie the Pooh tops and many other child ones I have from Fran. I had over 70 for children to work up, so using up this fabric isn’t going to be a problem. I figure one of these 50 meter bolts will do about 20+ small quilts and fewer than that of the large ones.

I am not really “mad” - I just got frustrated since I sent pictures and numbers and everything and they still messed up. And it’s not just $20. It happened before when they sent a completely wrong one - they sent me little Indians and teepees when I ordered something quite different - not even related to that theme. At least this time the theme was the same! I didn’t mention that experience to them - but made sure from then on that I sent pictures in my emails.

But I’m writing this on Sunday night and I’m over my being upset about it - it will turn out just fine - as the colors on the little sailboats are just perfect for many of my tops. I won’t have a problem using it. I still hope I can get the other sailboats, though - as so many people here in Poland love sailing and would love to use it on the back of more grown up (or teen) quilts.

So…here are my goodies.

When you order like this, you don’t really know how much you are ordering. They tell you that you have to buy a bolt - which starts at 50 meters, but can be as many as 100 meters. In the end, I got 100 meters of the brown with hearts, the camo, and the cars on light yellow. I did not realize the camo had as much brown in it as it does, but I’m totally fine with it - as it will go beautifully with many, many of the Big Fabric Haul quilts!

The bright butterflies and the mammoths (I had thought they were elephants - but they aren’t) are really nice as I had thought they would be. And the cutesy kiddie sailboats are growing on me. In fact, by the time I’m writing this, I’ve already quilted up two kids’ quilts with it on the back. So, it will work out beautifully. It really will.

Here are some closer pics. They tape two of these rather large bolts or rolls together like this for shipping. We had quite a bit of cutting to get the packages open without any risk of cutting fabric.

The mammoths:

The cars on yellow: It’s not printed very densely, but it will make boys quite happy - and it works for the backing.

The sailboats:

The butterflies - a Polish folk design: I got 58 meters of it and not just 50. I am happy about that. I wouldn’t have minded 100, in fact!

Green camo - and while it’s kind of boring - it works for both teenagers and adults.

Finally, the brown background with red hearts - perfect for all those brown based quilt tops I have!

I am sure that Rachael would love for me to emphasize that these are what I got here in POLAND from a wholesale source here and are not available in the USA. Please do not be jealous. While I look high and low for the best I can find - you have so much available to you in the USA that you have myriads of great choices. I worked hard to find more detailed prints and not simply designs with an impressionist or childlike feel.

As to the receipt. It is almost indecipherable to me. Seriously.

They lumped all the fabrics together and told me I got 357 meters of a fabric called Koral and 100 meters of one called Rubin. I’m assuming these are what they call their greige goods. I didn’t “get that” since all the stickers that were stuck to the fabric said “Rubin”.

I paid one price per meter for each of the kinds and they added 23% tax. My total for all 457 meters including shipping was 3091+ polish zlotys. That is $781 in today’s dollars. The fabric is about 62-63” wide. :)

I am most grateful as it makes backings affordable for this effort.

I will also happily admit that this time we have had help. A very nice lady sent us $1000 to help with this year’s quilts (!!!) as she realizes that the batting and backing costs add up - even though I do buy them at wholesale. In the past I’ve had people donate for batting. This year, I’ve had more help with TOPS than ever before. I appreciate it so very much. It is great fun to work with all the different colors, styles and patterns of what other people have done.

I will say that I don’t mention the prices as a way to complain as the Lord has provided graciously for us. If He hadn’t, I simply wouldn’t do this - as I don’t HAVE to make quilts for the needy here in Poland. But He has provided. And I have energy and desire and ability to do it - and this is something no one else is doing.

I only mention the prices because I know it is interesting to you.

At least it would be to me if I were you!

I couldn’t afford to do it with USA fabrics unless, of course, I could get them at closeout prices. Here in Poland, fabrics like Timeless Treasures and Robert Kaufman and such are about $15-$20/meter.

So there you know.

I’m busy again sandwiching and quilting with these new backings already. Powering on.

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

if you need fabric for your projects, be sure to check out what we have here.

I know at least some of you are probably interested in doing the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt this year which she normally starts on the day after Thanksgiving. If so, consider getting the fabric kit here!